Astronaut Tim Peake Completes Space Marathon

Wait, what? British astronaut Tim Peake finished a marathon in space? On the International Space Station?

(Tim Peake ISS Marathon in Space video)

British astronaut Tim Peake completed the London Marathon on Sunday while strapped to a treadmill in the International Space Station — floating in orbit about 200 miles above his nearly 40,000 competitors on the ground.

After wishing his fellow runners good luck and kicking off the race in a recorded message, Peake finished the 26.2-mile course in about three hours and 35 minutes, the European Space Agency tweeted.

In order to simulate the atmosphere of the race on the ground, Peake watched a digital recreation of the route — complete with a cheering crowd — on the RunSocial iPad app as he ran.

Amazingly, science fiction readers from the 1950's - a decade before the space program - would not be puzzled by this, and would know just how it was done - thanks to Murray Leinster's 1953 novel Space Tug. Leinster was well acquainted with the related problem of space travel - he called it space weakness.

"When we got back," Joe told Brown, "we were practically invalids. No exercise up here. This time we've brought some harness to wear. We've some for you, too..."

Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses. He showed Brent how they worked. Brown hadn't official instructions to order their use, but Joe put one on himself, set for full Earth-gravity simulation.
(Read more about the gravity-simulator harness)